Thursday, May 04, 2017

Nigeria Is Ruled By A Cabal - PDP Warns

The National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that a cabal is now ruling Nigeria.

It believes the health challenge of President Muhammadu Buhari has shown that some individuals have taken over the running of the government from the ailing President.

The reaction of the committee followed the inability of Buhari to attend the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting for the third consecutive week.

Though there is nothing unusual in the President being sick, the former ruling party submitted that what was bad was the refusal of the President to disclose the true state of his health.

The PDP argued that the health of the President must be bad to have prevented him from attending the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting consecutively for three weeks.

Spokesperson for the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee, Dayo Adeyeye, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents on Wednesday.

Adeyeye, a former Minister of State for Works, said the health of the President and the attitude of his handlers had shown that the country “is now on auto pilot.”

He said, “We sympathise with the President on his health and we pray that God will lay His hands on him.

“However, it is now certain that the country in now being ruled by a cabal. Members of the cabal are not known.

“Who is in charge of the country now? We don’t know. Nigeria is now on auto pilot. We don’t know who is rocking the country and who exactly is churning out orders or exercising the executive powers of the President anymore.

“This can’t happen in saner climes. We have a President who has not been seen in public for some days and the government is not worried.”

Efforts to get presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, on the telephone on Wednesday did not yield any result.

He did not respond to an email and text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Buhari not being fed through tube –Mohammed

Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, said Buhari’s continued absence from the weekly FEC meetings could not be described as a strange development.

Mohammed said this while answering questions from State House correspondents who sought to know why Buhari was again absent from the council’s meeting on Wednesday having missed two previous ones.

He said the development was not strange because the President was only following the advice of his doctors that he should take things easy.

The minister stated, “All he (the President) is doing is he is following his doctor’s advice.

“Mr. President himself told the nation he has never been this sick and he is going to take it easy. He said it from day one when he came back from the UK.

“So, whatever is happening today is not any strange development; it is exactly what he said he has been advised to take it easy by his doctors and that he will soon also go back for further treatment.

“So, I don’t think it is anything that is out of place from what he said. He has been quite transparent and upfront in the matter concerning his health.”

Mohammed also faulted a media report that claimed that Buhari was being fed through tube, describing the report as “absolute bunkum.”

He added, “It is absolutely untrue that he is being fed. He was in the office yesterday (Tuesday) as you all reported.

“You are aware that the President was at his office yesterday (Tuesday), and he worked at his office yesterday. A few days before now, we came out to say he has been asked to take some rest by his doctors, and he chose today to rest and not to attend the Federal Executive Council meeting.

“We want to seize this opportunity to thank Nigerians who have expressed a lot of concern and sympathy, and who have been praying for him. Like we have always said, Mr. President will stick to his doctor’s advice so that he can recover much more quickly.”

The minister also said the present administration would mark its second anniversary because it has a lot of stories to tell.

Go and rest in the UK, coalition tells Buhari

Also, a group of political pressure associations, under the aegis of Free Nigeria Coalition, on Wednesday, called on Buhari to “urgently seek medical attention of his doctors in the United Kingdom and take some deserved rest.”

The FNC recalled that subsequent to his arrival from the United Kingdom, Buhari had hinted that there might, however, be a need for further follow-up within some weeks.

The organisation said the call became pertinent because the country “is sitting on a keg of gunpowder while the state of the nation is becoming increasingly uncertain due to our widening fault lines.”

A statement by FNC, obtained by The PUNCH in Jos, entitled ‘State of the nation: Our demand from the Presidency on President Buhari’s health’, expressed concern with what it described as the unguarded and inciting dangerous position of a police officer, one Inusa Saidu Biu from the Biu Local Government Area of Borno State.

Biu was said to have vowed on his Facebook page that “if Buhari dies, I promise to kill 200 people.”

According to the coalition, the position of Biu still represents the views of some other “disgruntled elements” in different parts of the country.

The group regretted that since “the shabby reaction” of the police authorities that the case was under investigation and their promise to make its findings public soon, nothing had been heard on it.

The FNC added, “We demand that the investigations into it must be made public as promised by the police authorities, while something very urgent and painstaking measures must be done by the Federal Government to quickly address the conspicuous concerns in the land.

“We are not taking lightly the disingenuous information, which had come out of President Buhari’s home state of Katsina, and was widely circulated in different parts of the North, insinuating that his sickness was a result of poisoning.”

The coalition added, “Consequently, the Presidency must, at this juncture, urgently address Nigerians to dispel this wicked rumour, which is capable of creating a destabilising crisis of an unimaginable proportion and must, equally, caution the perpetrators.

“It is obvious to everyone that our volatile nation is sitting on a keg of gunpowder while the state of the nation is becoming increasingly uncertain due to our widening fault lines.

“In particular, the palpable apprehension over the health of Mr President has worsened the atmosphere of regional and ethnic suspicions and lack of trust among our people.”

The FNC also demanded a bi-partisan investigation by the National Assembly into the allegations that the ship of the nation had been hijacked by a cabal, who had, in turn, taken an unconstitutional advantage of the President’s health challenge.

CNPP asks Nigerians to pray for President

However, the Kaduna State Chapter of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, on Wednesday, called on Nigerians to pray for the well-being of the President.

The CNPP, in a statement by its chairman, Alhaji Umar Faruq-Ibrahim, said rather than politicising the President’s health status for pecuniary gains, Nigerians at this point in time must exhibit high levels of “patriotism” and include the President in their prayers.

This, the group noted, was in the overall national interest.

The statement read in part: ‘‘As a people with common destiny, we need to constantly include President Muhammadu Buhari in our prayers for a quick recovery as a matter of overall national interest, and indeed, all our leaders; exhibit a very high level of patriotism; be proactive; make objective not distractive actions and criticisms; proffer progressive advice and solutions devoid of political, selfish, ethnic religious considerations.”